ForestPaths researchers headed a team of six authors in the publication of a new scientific paper that was published in the Global Change Biology Journal. The study is titled “A Global Assessment of Plant and Animal Community Responses to Forest Management Over Time” and was collaboratively drafted by representatives of three institutions - the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL), Wageningen Environmental Research (WUR) and Radboud University. Leading the effort were our project partners Hanneke van 't Veen (PBL), Rob Alkemade (PBL) and Mart-Jan Schelhaas (WUR). 

The ongoing discussion on how to transition to forest management styles that minimise or even avoid biodiversity losses is a core concern underpinning this study’s research. In that sense, the authors set out to improve understanding of the effect certain practices have on flora and fauna over time. In particular, three global biodiversity databases were consulted, generating an analytical input for the paper from 182 studies. This allowed for seven distinct forest management styles to be evaluated in terms of their impact on plant and animal life alike. Four concrete metrics guided this assessment: intactness, relative species richness, compositional similarity and relative total abundance. Those informed a juxtaposition between managed and undisturbed forests.  

In terms of results, the main conclusions drawn from the analysis include: 

• Managing forests is observed to impact existing biodiversity conditions considerably. 

• When comparing extensive and intensive management styles, the former supports higher levels of overall and threatened biodiversity. 

• Agroforestry and forest plantations exhibit substantial increases in animal community intactness and increased similarity with undisturbed forests over 40 and 80 years since establishment, a tendency that is not found in terms of species richness and total abundance. 

Generally, the results highlight the potential of selective cutting and agroforestry to mitigate biodiversity loss compared to more intensive systems, as well as the potential of longer rotation periods in forest plantations to increase habitat availability for species specifically adapted to undisturbed forests. 

The full study, which was undertaken in collaboration with the SUPERB project, can be accessed here. For more information on ForestPaths' activities surrounding the assessment of forest management styles, watch our interview with the paper’s lead author, Hanneke van 't Veen.